4/28/2009 @ 4:00PM

In Depth: Baseball's Most Intense Rivalries

3. Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians

One-two divisional finishes: one

Close season finishes (five games or less): 15

Current ticket markup: 15%

Until the American League broke apart into divisions, these two were almost always overshadowed by the specter of the Yankees and Red Sox. The Tigers’ World Series appearance in 2006 and the pennant race between the Tigers and the Indians the following year stoked the rivalry a bit, but it’s a large step down from the first two rivalries on our list. While the teams finished within five games of each other 15 times from 1950 to 2008, they’ve only finished first and second once.

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